6 Zhao Ruhui

This week, when Professor Inouye talked about the word “shashin写真”, I suddenly realize that it’s a very interesting word. I’ve already known that it means photographs, but when looking at the two kanjis, I can imagine a person performing drawings very carefully to mimic the beauty of nature through his own emotion. Later, when I was reading Haikus by Basho, I felt like his haikus and paragraphs are also different kinds of “shashin”. I was traveling with him and looking for the beauty of most fundamental things in different ancient places. He had great observation to connect natural and living things, such as saffron blossoms and lady’s powder puff (Basho, 92), summer grass and brave soldiers (Basho, 84). At the time you are trying to record the moment of nature beauty, you “hide” your own understanding and emotion into the art you did (either drawing and writing). These art forms not only help you understand nature (object) and yourself (subject) better, people who see your art forms later will also gain their own valuable thoughts. That’s the magic of “shashin”.